Under the Stars

I am absolutely in love wiht this place! Such a cute location, nice vibe and gorgeous food. Very reasonable pricing an authentic tasting tapas. I 10 000% recommend.

visited under the stars yesterday, and as usual wasn’t disappointed! The food was to die for, their tapas is amazing and I couldn’t recommend it enough. The atmosphere in there is great, it’s a fab location and the staff were lovely. One of my favourite restaurants in Bristol.

I organise an online social group and had a group of 20 booked for tapas lastnight. More and more people wanted to come and the group grew from the origional 10 to 20!
I’d called a few times to keep upping the numbers ensuring they could accomodate which they said they could :)
On the day of the event the bar man called to check our numbers and told me we’d have to have a set menu of either £12 or £15– this was super suprising to tell me this ON the day of the event as this had not been explaind to be on any of the 3 occassions i’d called.
I’d asked for a copy of the set menu choices via email so i could post onto the social page to pre warn people but they didn’t have one availible and said we could choose anything from the menu, i began to feel nervous but was assured it would all work out.
I arrived at the boat which has lovely décor inside, cosie with nice views of the docks *though i’d suggest a window clean they were pretty grubby and a few people in the group had commented about that.
I’d spoken to the owner Leanne about what was the deal with the set menus’ exactly and it turned out we ALL had to decide whether we all had either the £12 menu or the £15 menu.
The group were not exactly impressed trying to get 20 people with different appitites to agree on which mystry dishes to have was stessful but we’d all agreed to go for the £12 in the end.
Bread and olives were brought out first with some oils which went down a treat leaving us excited to try the tapas. The tapas were rolled out and i have to say (being spanish myself) that the food was amazing. My compliments to the chef!
It didn’t seem an awful lot of food though for £12 each i have to admit — i was led to believe it would be 3 dishes per person (the bar man had told me on the phone) and there was no way there were 60 dishes on that table. There were some great sweat potato chips, meat balls, chorizo, squid etc but then quite a lot of cous cous and salad… we all barely had one plate full of food BUT it was just on the right side of full so there were only a few complaints and more smiles so nothing was said :)
We’d noticed some flyers stating if you order 4 tapas or more you’d get a bottle of house wine which i’d asked Leanne about but we didn’t qualify being a group and having the set menu… i do really understand that but us bringing £300+ worth of business to you and to not get anything that a smaller group would have gotten doesnt massivly make sense to me. That would encourage lots of smaller groups bringing in less business i would think?
After dinner we’d decided to have pudding as we were still peckish but low and behold, there were only 3 slices of brownie and some ice cream left! So we ordered and shared our bite size desert between us (costing £4, very small portion!)
There was a free musician that played for two hours and he was fantastic!
Having a glass of wine on the boat listening to live music really made the evening.
To sum up:
I’d definatly return but not with a large group, i feel personally that groups are slightly penialised and limited to food they might not even enjoy not being given a choice or even a printed set menu to look at.

Now this is a beautiful spot to sip a pint on the river. And when I say ‘on’ the river, I mean ‘on’ the river!
Under the Stars is an ultra cool restaurant/​café/​bar boat on the river, in the centre of Bristol. The tops deck is kitted out with around 15 tables and over looks the beautiful river and the busy bars opposite. It has such a cool vibe that it’s difficult not to fall in love with the place as soon as you step on. It is a far contrast from the hectic ‘towny’ bars across the river.
Down stairs is a really cute bar and restaurant area. I’ve not eaten here before but I’ve heard some really good reports of their tapas and winter menus.
During winter they also do cinema nights down stairs with bean bags, blankets and hot chocolate.
It can get really hectic and with such a small bar it can be difficult to get a drink. But if you can get a table before 5pm then you’re onto a winner!

When I first stumbled across this café-​bar, I read the name as «Under the Stairs», which confused me, and I just cannot get my brain to understand that it’s actually called Under the Stars. Luckily the bar itself has more certainty about its name and concept than I do! A lovely, stylish bar-​café on a boat, it’s a perfect place to come for a cool beer on a sunny lunchtime or evening. You can either sit inside the boat by the bar, or at the tables on the pavement.
As an eaterie, this place is worth a shot. They serve an excellent range of «lite bites» such as flat breads with hummous, fish cakes and spring rolls. They also have on the menu the endearingly named «boat-​made soup of the day», and a range of breakfast options.
Quite a romantic venue, now I think about it, Under the Stars (not stairs!) could be a great place for a date: twinkly water, stars above, yummy nibbles to share … I’ll leave you with that thought…

Under the Stars is a terrific venue at the Harbourside. A terrific venue that floats too, might I add. It is permanently moored here but it always still is a nice treat to be having coffee and cake on board a boat. They work alot with local suppliers to bring fresh food to their customers, and the menu surely doesn’t lack in choice! They have a huge selection of ‘Lite Bites’ from Spanish Potatas Bravas, Lebanese Babaghanoush, to a more Asian flavour of Thai fishcakes and Wantons.
Every Wednesday, Under the Stars is host to a film night, which is just great and a nice change from watching a film on the sofa at home. On Friday’s, singers, poets, storytellers are all welcome here for their open mic night. Monday nights are student nights, with cheap drinks and offers and they sometimes host Bingo nights on Thursday!
During the day, lunch times under the sun with a blue sky above you is certainly very pleasant. and who doesn’t want to eat on a boat? And not forgetting to mention, that Under the Stars is the only Shisha bar on the Harbourside, and with their open top deck on the boat, there is plenty of seating for shisha goers, and also for those of you who smoke.
This café bar is certainly opening up their doors to interactive, creative nights and is a place that is simply fun to be.